Reinforcer pathology: Common neural substrates for delay discounting and snack purchasing in prediabetics

Abstract

Reinforcer pathology theory stipulates that individuals with both (a) high preference for smaller, immediate over larger, delayed rewards; and (b) high demand for unhealthy commodities are uniquely susceptible to poor health outcomes. Specifically, two behavioral economic tasks (delay discounting, assessing preference for smaller, immediate or larger, delayed rewards; and purchasing, assessing purchases of commodities over changes in price) have been independently associated with conditions such as overweight/obesity and problem substance use. In the present study, we examined possible shared neural regions involved in the processes of delay discounting and demand for snack foods in a prediabetic sample. Fifty-four participants completed both of these tasks. Conjunction between delay discounting and purchasing task results indicates substantial common neural substrates recruited during these two tasks, consistent with interpretations of executive control, interoception, and attention, in the prefrontal cortex, insula, and frontoparietal cortex (superior/middle frontal cortex and superior/inferior parietal lobules), respectively. Collectively, these results suggest possible neural substrates in which the two behavioral risk factors of reinforcer pathology may interact during real-world decision-making in prediabetes.

Cognitive dysfunction is a risk factor for overeating and obesity.

“…Poor DD may contribute to obesity through increased preference for high palatability foods, eating larger amounts of food than needed for energy balance, and eating when not hungry. DD may also contribute to obesity through other pathways, including purchasing less healthy food (Appelhans, Tangney, French, Crane, & Wang, 2019; Deshpande et al, 2019), reduced physical activity (Snider, DeHart, Epstein, & Bickel, 2019), changing the relative reinforcing value of food (Stojek & MacKillop, 2017), and reduced response to weight loss interventions (Dassen, Houben, Allom, & Jansen, 2018).…”

Tunneling, cognitive load and time orientation and their relations with dietary behavior of people experiencing financial scarcity – an AI-assisted scoping review elaborating on scarcity theory

“…Our synthesis of the literature fits to current theoretical approaches as life history theory [ 145 – 148 ] and reinforcer pathology [ 149 – 151 ] that suggest that in situations of financial scarcity dietary behavior could be affected through shifts in attention and priorities, making dietary choices more adaptive to or logical consequences of energy-consuming insecure and unstable situations [ 152 , 153 ], suggesting that dietary decisions of people experiencing financial scarcity could be both instrumental and stress-driven.…”

Reinforcer pathology II: Reward magnitude, reward delay, and demand for alcohol collectively relate to college students' alcohol related problems

“…Consistent with the reinforcer pathologies model (Bickel & Athamneh, 2020; Bickel, Jarmolowicz, MacKillop, et al, 2012; Bickel, Jarmolowicz, et al, 2011; Bickel, Johnson, et al, 2014; Carr et al, 2011; Jarmolowicz et al, 2016), regression models accounting for students' overvaluation of alcohol and preferences for immediate rewards predicted each subtype of the participants' alcohol related problems (Lemley et al, 2016). This adds to the growing body of research supporting this theoretical approach (Deshpande et al, 2019; Epstein et al, 2014; Feda et al, 2015; Lemley et al, 2017; Lemley et al, 2016; Rollins et al, 2010). Importantly, although each of the subscales of the YAACQ were predicted by our behavioral economic measures, no single behavioral economic measure predicted all YAACQ subscales, suggesting a combination of behavioral processes may be needed to successfully predict the full range of alcohol‐related problems that students experience.…”